Such dampers or shock absorbers find wide application in vehicles, like cars, motor cycles, trains, etcetera, but can also be applied in other areas as well. The shock absorber is mounted in between two parts of the vehicle, such as in between the wheel of a car and the car body to damp the relative motion between the two parts. The shock absorber is required to show a certain damping behavior that may, inter alia, be dependent on the relative velocity of the movement of both parts with respect to one another. One can distinguish low, intermediate and high frequency regimes in the relative velocities of both parts, each regime requiring a certain damping behavior to provide the car with optimum road performance while also providing comfort to the driver and passengers. The required damping behavior is generally also dependent on whether the wheel is a front wheel or a rear wheel, whether the wheel has an independent wheel suspension or not, whether it concerns a sports car or a truck, etcetera. The shock absorber should allow accurate tuning of the required damping behavior, most preferably in a manner that provides an independent setting of damping variables for both inward and outward movements.
On the other hand, the shock absorbers should be cost-effective. In this respect one would like to have one type of shock absorber that can be generally applied. However, such shock absorber will not be optimally suited for its specific applications.